Southwest Road Trip ~ 1

Friday

Jul 20, 2012 at 12:01 AMJul 20, 2012 at 5:16 PM

I am a landscape and arts junkie on a road trip in the southwest with one of my best friends. How much fun am I having?

The day we left California was the hottest at 103 in the Bakersfield area. Since then the weather has been perfect with afternoon thunder storms. We got caught in a monsoon down poor in Arizona and a hail storm on the road to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon doesn’t appear to have changed much since I was their last in 1977. It is still mind-blowing to see in person.

North Rim of the Grand Canyon

While going through the hundreds of galleries in the cities you will see plenty of art, but it can be more interesting to visit artist’s galleries and studios. Many local artists have galleries in their studios and are open for business year round among them are Truchas artist eRic Luplow. eRic’s watercolor paintings are color-filled works of surrealism and folk art. He has coined his work sur-folkTM “the place where surrealism & folk art combine emerge alive with brilliant colors.” eRic’s paints almost every day so there is always some new work to see.

I visited an exhibit on the 2nd floor of the Santa Fe Library titled, Reptiles! a reptile house installation by Lara Nickel The snakes are exquisitely painted on paper and set in the environments she has created. Lara’s work invites the viewer to see the image set on paper as artwork and as the object, in this case snakes, and the focal point of the installation. She is interested in challenging our thinking around art and helping us to stretch our perceptions on where art can impact our lives in non-traditional ways. Reptiles! will be in the library through July 2012 and then move to the Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road.

Here are a few links to some of the groups helping to support artists you can find traveling the roadways of northern New Mexico.

The High Road Artists

Artist Studio Tours for 2012 New Mexico

New Mexico Arts Council

Northwest New Mexico Arts Council

Northwest New Mexico sunset

I am a landscape and arts junkie on a road trip in the southwest with one of my best friends. How much fun am I having?

The day we left California was the hottest at 103 in the Bakersfield area. Since then the weather has been perfect with afternoon thunder storms. We got caught in a monsoon down poor in Arizona and a hail storm on the road to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon doesn’t appear to have changed much since I was their last in 1977. It is still mind-blowing to see in person.

North Rim of the Grand Canyon

While going through the hundreds of galleries in the cities you will see plenty of art, but it can be more interesting to visit artist’s galleries and studios. Many local artists have galleries in their studios and are open for business year round among them are Truchas artist eRic Luplow. eRic’s watercolor paintings are color-filled works of surrealism and folk art. He has coined his work sur-folkTM “the place where surrealism & folk art combine emerge alive with brilliant colors.” eRic’s paints almost every day so there is always some new work to see.

I visited an exhibit on the 2nd floor of the Santa Fe Library titled, Reptiles! a reptile house installation by Lara Nickel The snakes are exquisitely painted on paper and set in the environments she has created. Lara’s work invites the viewer to see the image set on paper as artwork and as the object, in this case snakes, and the focal point of the installation. She is interested in challenging our thinking around art and helping us to stretch our perceptions on where art can impact our lives in non-traditional ways. Reptiles! will be in the library through July 2012 and then move to the Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road.

Here are a few links to some of the groups helping to support artists you can find traveling the roadways of northern New Mexico.

The High Road Artists

Artist Studio Tours for 2012 New Mexico

New Mexico Arts Council

Northwest New Mexico Arts Council

Northwest New Mexico sunset

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